Oral history interview with Barbara Strycharz Markert, April 20, 2009.

Oral history interview with Barbara Strycharz Markert, April 20, 2009.

Dr. Emanuel: My name is Gary Emanuel and today is April the twenty and we are here interviewing Barbara Strycharz Market now, is that correct?
Barbara: That’s correct.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay, here in Tucson, Arizona. So Barbara, let me explain to you; you were just asking about the project. I got started on this a little over a year ago, doing oral histories of graduates of NAU. Sue Sessions, does that name ring a bell to you? Sue mentioned your name, that she had remembered you. There were a couple of others from your year graduated that I had done, so that will be fun.
Barbara: Alright.
Dr. Emanuel: I have a series of questions Barbara that I’m going to go through but this is your story so you get to tell it however you want.
Barbara: Okay.
Dr. Emanuel: But let’s just start with what your name was then, the degree you received, the year and the department and so on.
Barbara: Okay, received a Bachelor of Science in education, in 1966.
Dr. Emanuel: And the department, that was elementary, secondary?
Barbara: Well at that time they didn’t decipher but it was primary.
Dr. Emanuel: It was the Elementary?
Barbara: Yeah, elementary.
Dr. Emanuel: And then tell me a little bit about the role you had in education since graduation?
Barbara: Never stopped.
(Laughing)
Barbara: Um, actually it’s never stopped, seriously. Even now I volunteer and I’ve been retired now going on seven years this May. Um at one of my old schools, Dunham, and help give the aims test to the special education students and 504 students.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh.
Barbara: Because I think our state does them a great injustice.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah, yeah.
Barbara: Saying you have to be the ones that have to be tested on grade level. Well my gosh, if they were on grade level they wouldn’t be in special education. Hello. Does anyone not have a brain?
Dr. Emanuel: You wonder sometimes, don’t you? Talk to me... did you start, no you didn’t start at that school.
Barbara: No I started in Sierra Vista.
Dr. Emanuel: And teaching what grade?
Barbara: I taught second grade at Carmichael school under Dutch Holland.
Dr. Emanuel: My gosh that’s an old name.
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: And then?
Barbara: Um and then from Carmichael basically, okay that’s a story in itself that needs to be told somehow I guess. Um, I was Cindy Klellans teacher by the way, in case you didn’t know that or were aware of it. So psychologically I had some damage from years because I had not only the killers face to face with me on the playground and I realized immediately the person said oh you have the same smile as Cindy. I still get goose bumps today.
Dr. Emanuel: Now Barbara, relate that whole story because I don’t know that everyone will know the background.
Barbara: Okay, um this was a little seven year old girl whose father was over in Germany, mother was here in Sierra Vista and she was killed very brutally out on the government land outside of the school yard. The two men who killed her were from ---high school, lived on the same street as Dutch Holland believe it or not and the brother to those two high schoolers was in my class. So the brother introduced me to the older brother, that’s how that part started. And I knew and I immediately told the police he’s gotta be one of them. He has to be involved; I just have to tell you that. And I did try to help Cindy at the time because she came back to the school, to the classroom and she said oh Mrs. Strycharz I need my spelling list. And I said oh Cindy you don’t have to get your spelling list right now. We’re not having our test till a week from Friday yet and you’ll have the whole weekend to just have fun and relax and worry about it later next week. And she had a fist full of candy. And I said oh my gosh this is a target so I went to the front of the room where her desk was and I said Cindy why don’t you wait a few minutes and I’ll take you back home when I leave. And I rang the string that says to the office that says you’re in trouble or need help and so the office says are you okay? And I said yes but I think that Mr. Holland needs to be at the front door however, very quickly and as soon as I said that she ran, fled out door before Mr. Holland could get there. And that’s the history behind it. And that’s where the guilt came in. Like I said a lot of psychological thing put on from that.
Dr. Emanuel: My goodness you were that close. And from there they took her and oh. Well that is quite a story and then you went...
Barbara: And then from there, because it all ties in to what I do presently. Um, so then I had to prepare the classroom as the consoler would do, that we were in a crisis. We had this child that was not coming back and to deal with the safety issue of how now all these walking children get home because there were no busses in Sierra Vista.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: It was all walking and we had no idea at that time who the person would be or might be or whatever. So that began my consoling career believe it or not because I prepared the children, families and how to get their kids from the school safely back home. From there, we did find her body. The government found her body and from there I was interviewed a lot of times about various things that might have happened or might not have happened. Did I know anything more than what I was saying? And even when so far as to give the California standardized testing from the office to my kids in second grade in the room. I know how crazy this is. But anyway after three years of police protection the police said you have to find another place to live and be. We can’t protect you any longer. So I came to Tucson.
Dr. Emanuel: Which was?
And I started at VC school with my in Tucson and it was a brand new school so it was on the ground floor of it. It happened to be small world, my old principal from elementary school. So I was always labeled Mary Lynn Product.
Dr. Emanuel: And who is that principal?
Barbara: Allis Ronakey. She’s dead now. Yeah, and she retired the year that I had our first child and got out of teaching for one month and I was called back and the district says we do not have anyone in our district who is qualified to oversee the Stanford testing that was being done and they hadn’t chosen a school yet but they said we need somebody who has testing ability, which you have from NAU and who can oversee this so it has to be someone who is not presently teaching who has the degree, who would be willing to oversee the whole project which is going to be revamping the WISC intelligence test. So I got reintroduced to the testing field again and worked for Jim’s mother who also worked down in the research department and worked for her for a while, for at least five years, six years. Going out and doing animal cracker testing for title ones, and homeschooling children I got involved. It became my pet project to do at --middle school each year for the state of Arizona. Um and then when our children were grown and I was no longer substituting well I came back to do consoling and they had positions open and stayed in until retirement.
Dr. Emanuel: And you have how many children?
Barbara: Two girls.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.Well take me back to Arizona State College which it was when you went there.
Barbara: Yes.
Dr. Emanuel: What was the physical college of Arizona State College like when you first arrived there?
Barbara: Okay it was a very friendly campus. It was not a huge campus like it is today. It’simmense. I was assigned to north hall and I was inCampbell hall which then later became one of the sorority dorms
Dr. Emanuel: AOPi’s if I remember right
Barbara: I think it was AOPi. So then we got moved to south quad and south quad believe it or not became one wing married couples and three wings of single girls.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: I didn’t know that
Barbara: Yeah I wrote that on my little list.
Dr. Emanuel: How interesting.
Barbara: So it made for very interesting modesty at all times.
Dr. Emanuel: Yes
Barbara: We couldn’t just go to our laundry room in our night gowns or robes like we would normally have done.
Dr. Emanuel: And there was only one lobby.
Barbara: And there was only one lobby but what they did is it was open to the tri delt and sorority row.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh.
Barbara: And fraternity row faced out where the new health building went in
Dr. Emanuel: Right.
Barbara: So they had their own gate and so forth.But they still had their windows that over looked our patios.
(Laughing)
Barbara: So our quad was open to them.
Dr. Emanuel: Well there was a part I didn’t remember. Um, anything else about the physical layout of the campus or any of the other social outlets of the day?
Barbara: Well yes in Morton hall, okay well first you have to know it’s in a square, the buildings in a square. And then we had our patio in the middle. The only TV was down in Morton hall. So that’s where you would gather after your showers and washing hairs and what have you and go down to Morton hall and watch TV. That was a big occasion.
(Laughing)
Barbara: Also on the weekends was the only time they opened up the kitchen in North hall. So for those of us that had meal tickets for the five days but not for seven days, then we were allowed to cook in there until some girls of course took advantage of those kinds of privileges. But for the most part that was what we did. And also, okay I had one roommate who began with me, Beverly Barrett who received a scholarship from Pueblo High school, was told that if she took the scholarship to NAU she could not renegethat scholarship in any way and if she did that the scholarship would never be honored to Pueblo high school again. After the first midterms she had a B in typing or some business subject and went bananas. She was a straight A student and never had received a B. She didn’t know how to handle this B, so unfortunately I, or fortunately I don’t know which, but anyway all of us from Pueblo round the clock kept talking to her that she needed to stay and she needed to keep that scholarship because Pueblo is a poor school to begin with.And scholarships are major but she ended up going home no matter what we did for that whole three days around the clock, it did not help. She just went home.So we lost that scholarship so Jeanette Allen became my roommate from Amfly high school which is the other end of town and she and I are still friends today.
Dr. Emanuel: Etchiel?
Barbara: Yeah, Etchiel yeah. She sang beautifully. She sang in the choir there at
Dr. Emanuel: Shriner
Barbara: Yup she was Shriner. One night in the middle of the night, she had the top bunk and I had the bottom bunk and the bunk fell, smashed right on me.
(Laughing)
Barbara: We didn’t know what happened. She didn’t know what happened. Then we got the giggles and couldn’t go to sleep over this dumb bed that gave way.
Dr. Emanuel: So the rooms were bunk beds?
Barbara: Were bunk beds
Dr. Emanuel: Oh my goodness
Barbara: And then shortly after that they made them into twin beds but before that they were bunk beds. I also remember our little beanies with the little twirlies.
Dr. Emanuel: Yes, yes. And a sign saying I’m a freshman.
Barbara: I’m a freshman.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: Yes, I??m your servant.And literally I was a servant for a football player the night that we had our walk around campus. We were doing a snake dance in the parking lot across from the union hall and he apparently saw at that time I was a ninety pound weakling and picked me up by the arm and literally swung me like a rope and threw me. And I landed up against the side walk of Union hall and several people tried to take me to the health office, which was of course just a few feet away at that time, hadn’t been in the new building, but nobody was there. And nobody could tend me over this matter for having been thrown or falling for I guess it was almost a month. And when I did they said oh just go home and soak. And I said I did all the soaking I can do, I really do hurt. There is something majorly wrong. They’d say oh no you’re okay. So I came home and saw my doctor and he had cleared me too, but my junior year I got Phlebitis from that fall. And couldn’t..
Dr. Emanuel: In the legs?
Barbara: Yes, and could not, could not wake, when I woke up I could not walk. And my roommates at south quad were just so frightened. They didn’t know what to do for me and so they brought me breakfast, lunch and dinner and then they said you know we got to take you to the infirmary. You can’t live here like this. So they took me and I remember that infirmary doctor saying there’s nothing I can do and your doctor at home is actually the best doctor to go back to. So I came back and the rest was history there too. So I went back and that’s when my grade average fell because when I came back I couldn’t do stairs. Well, guess where all the education classes were? Second floor of the education building.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: And out of my five or six teachers, only two of them allowed me homework downstairs or in the lobby of the education building in order to do it. The rest unfortunately went south. I had to make those up then in summer school because I needed to student teach in the fall.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: So life has not been easy in education but it’s been a fun ride. Like roller-coasters.
Dr. Emanuel: You were from Pueblo.
Barbara: (muffled)
Dr. Emanuel: Sure. Why did you choose to go to ASC?
Barbara: Oh that’s another little interesting story. I can even tell you. I was in Mr. Torchiano’s math class and I had one of my fellow friends who was sitting next to me and we were doing our math problems and Mr. Torchiano said something about how many of you here are planning to do education. We all raised our hands. He says how many of you are -- U of A. Of course I was because we didn’t have money. My parents didn’t have enough to send me away from college and after class he came up to me and said Barbara, you’re a natural born teacher, don’t go to the U of A. He says you have to go up to flagstaff and there is no way around that. We’re going to work on a scholarship for you. And I thought what? And so through girl’s league--however, another little facet that generally happens to Barbara, Murphy’s Law, when it came time to graduation there was another young lady who was in girl’s league ---more money than my parents. Anyway that was beside the point and they decided they needed to grant it to her in honor of all the work her parents had done and that she had done and etc. and would I be willing to give up my scholarship for her. And I said well I really need the scholarship, but I said I understand where you’re coming from and so I guess I will do so, so that she can go wherever she wants to go and I know that she has been around the world as a great translator. So I don’t have any regrets that she also got a good scholarship that got her somewhere that was important in life to
Dr. Emanuel: How then did you pay for your college experience? Did you work during that time?
I did.
Dr. Emanuel: What jobs did you hold on campus?
Barbara: Great fun. Okay, um, trying to think of the first one. The first one I think was Dr. Smallwood and I don’t recall how I got connected to him except that somebody in the main office must have seen that I had library science throughout high school because that was my fun outlet of high school. I mean I had belonged to a whole bunch of organizations but I just loved libraries. And so, anyway they told me that Dr. Smallwood was looking for somebody to set up his library and that they thought that I would be a good match for him. And I did so. Then later I took a classroom speech and I believed he used your father’s book, Speech for all. See it’s all a tie in. It really is just so much that ties in. You know you have to say your life is planned out somehow. And you just go on this merry go round. Um so that’s how I got involved with Dr. Smallwood and did his library and then I did an assistant type work for Dr. Aarons and by the way I didn’t need to look up in my year book any of these names.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh. Well you’re doing better than most of us that, that’s for sure because I couldn’t remember most of the people.
Barbara: And then my biggest and most fun job on campus, this was registration. I was one of the registers.
Dr. Emanuel: I didn’t know that.
Barbara: Mmhmm.
Dr. Emanuel: And where was that located back then?
Barbara: Well every time we came for registration that was in the main oh where was that? It was in a hall like. I’m trying to think. It had to be in the lobby of the student union. They must have had some room that they opened up to us. Like a ballroom. If fact that’s what I remember. And I don’t recall it being in the gym. I know the first time it was. Then after that we didn’t do it in the gym anymore. I’m sure it was in the new student union
Dr. Emanuel: I had another interview that was going through the same thing, remembering the punch cards that they used to hand out
Barbara: Yes we had the punch cards.
Dr. Emanuel: But we could not remember where that took place. We remembered once in the men’s gym but that was it.
Barbara: Yeah, once, that’s what I’m saying. It was in one of the gyms. That Iremember.So it’d be the men’s gym because the women’s would have been too small.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: And then after that we went to a different kind of system so we didn’t have to be physically in ---anymore because the teachers didn’t need to be present And so I’m sure it was in the new student union that we went to.
Dr. Emanuel: So did you have other jobs?
Barbara: That was it.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.
Barbara: Oh I did. I had one in my dorm where I answer phones.
Dr. Emanuel: Well speaking of dorms, let’s talk about housing at, back then.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: What your experience was like in the dormitory.
Barbara: Oh the good old dorms.
(background talking)
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: Um, dorm life was really quite interesting and quite fun actually for the most part. Um, north hall my freshman year for the most part was actually a very quiet dorm for the most part for freshman. However when we moved to south quad, that was a real eye opener and learned to use the libraries a whole lot more than being in your dorm. When we moved to south quad for the sophomore year we had four women to a room. We had three beds out in the front room and then one in the small bedroom. However, halfway through my junior year when they did the opening for the marriage group on that one wing they had to put of course all those people into then our rooms. So now our rooms became four beds, five beds. So we had two in the little room and three in the big room. Now we had a kitchenette that we did not use. However, most people know that we had hot plates and stick them underneath the stove drawer and hide them out of sight when it came time for inspections. We had inspections regularly plus unannounced inspections. We had a dorm consoler, I do remember that. ---my roommate was one of them. Oh I do remember dorm life was fun, you’ll, Bonnie Lynn. My husband went to school with her and she was one of my roommates. Bonnie one night had said nobody’s going to bother me. Everybody take their shower. Everybody do what they need to do in the bathroom. The bathroom is mine for the night.
(Laughing)
Barbara: We all looked at her and said wait a minute we might need to use it and we just don’t know about it yet. And she said well that will be okay. I’m just declaring the bathroom is mine. She proceeded to get all of her bed clothing, the sheets and the blankets and so forth. She laid them all in the tub after we finished our showers and all and put the pillow at the end of the tub and brought her books and at that time we had a little TV tray and she brought that in and she set her shop up in the shower, curtain around and she said if you need to use the toilet it’s yours. The rest of the space here is mine. And she studied all night long for her exams.
Dr. Emanuel: In the bath tub?
Barbara: In the bath tub and low and behold about 1:30 or 2 in the morning wouldn’t you know we had a panty raid and poor Bonnie’s in the bath tub trying to get out. It was so funny. I still picture that. That was probably a highlight.
Dr. Emanuel: And just that memory of panty raids tells you that it’s been awhile since then.
Oh what fun.
Dr. Emanuel: Well as long as we’re talking about traditions like that though, what traditions do you remember from ASC?
Okay, one that we still do presently and that is foreign foods night.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh.
Barbara: I thoroughly enjoyed all the different countries we visited with foods in the cafeteria and remember we had to dress up with the gloves and the whole nine yards and heels and so forth and we’d come to dinner because this was a special occasion. And everyone treated it with such respect that when I married Jim, we had a faculty wives organization in TUSD and one of the interest groups were in foods and so we joined immediately and we had been a part of the foreign foods group for what over thirty five years now.
Dr. Emanuel: Wow.
Barbara: And we still meet. We just met two nights ago, here.
Dr. Emanuel: And was that North dining hall? Or south?
Barbara: It was at both of them.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh at both of them. Okay.
Barbara: It was at both. And they had table cloths. I remember it was just beautiful. I thought this is elegant dining with
Dr. Emanuel: In a cafeteria
Barbara: No work. No food fights. Nothing like that.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: It was really pleasant.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: Other traditions?
Barbara: Other traditions that I remember? The snow sculptures were always the big tradition. Homecoming. Oh. And snow sculptures were a great even because it was the only time we could be out all night.
(Laughing)
Barbara: Legally.
Dr. Emanuel: Supposedly working on your sculpture.
Barbara: Right yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: Yes. Another tradition was religion and life week of which I helped host for two years of my four. And that two ties into my consoling background because when I became a consoler at TUSD I was one of the first and probably the only one from what I heard that took the junior high concept of career day and bringing to the elementary level with actual career people. Not just parents who wanted to come and talk to the kids. And the kids actually went around school, Jim had the pleasure after he retired to come and see one, he was absolutely I think blown away for an elementary level. So.
Dr. Emanuel: Uh religion and life week, Newman Center? Or?
Barbara: No that was the whole campus
Dr. Emanuel: For the whole campus.
Barbara: For the whole campus. And each religion had a year to do so to put it together. However one year and I don’t remember off hand but I’m thinking it was the protestant sector who said something that there speaker wasn’t able to come or whatever and I remember the LDS saying okay, we’ll take it over. So they did there’s two years in a row instead of the one and that’s why I work with them even though I wasn’t LDS
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: But I worked with them.
Dr. Emanuel: Barbara, other extra-curricular activities, what else were you involved in?
Barbara: Okay, I was Newman Queen and I was also oh dear, Doug Renner’s fraternity.
Mr. Markert: Sweetheart.
Barbara: Sweetheart, and I don’t remember what that is; Phi delta kappa I think. Something like that.
Mr. Markert: Want me to call him?
(laughing)
Barbara: Yeah, he’ll tell you. He’ll tell you. If you call him he’ll tell you.
Dr. Emanuel: Was it one of the fraternities on campus?
Barbara: Yeah, I was a fraternity on campus and it was his, Doug Renner’s. Call him, he’ll tell you.
Mr. Markert: Would you like to know, is that it?
Dr. Emanuel: It’s... you were a fraternity
Barbara: Sweetheart.
Dr. Emanuel: Sweetheart.
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.And other activities?
Barbara: Other activities, Senator.
Dr. Emanuel: Senator.
Barbara: A long time.
Mr. Markert:Did you do archery back then or was that high school?
Barbara: High school.
Dr. Emanuel: I don’t remember too much archery up there anyway.
Barbara: No but that was a good rival story too that happened in college. Oh let’s see. I can’t think of any but maybe some others will come. I know I was Newman club secretary and probably their treasurer. I know I held an office almost every year I was there. We put together the new Newman center.
Dr. Emanuel: Really?
Barbara: Yeah, our class.
Dr. Emanuel: The plans for it.
Barbara: The plans for it and how it should be done, etc.
Dr. Emanuel: Well, let me move you to the...
Barbara: Oh I worked on, on yes Drama; I worked on the sets because of Jen. She got me involved in working the set (Dr. Emanuel begins to speak over Barbara).
Dr. Emanuel: Arizona Play makers.
Barbara: Yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Uh huh.
Barbara: That was another one.
Dr. Emanuel: I interviewed um, Robert Welch who was in that.
Barbara: Oh yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah, absolutely.
Barbara: Oh thank you. My nose is running.
Dr. Emanuel: Allergies this season have been, yeah.What teachers or educational experiences do you remember?
(Phone ringing)
Barbara: What teachers? Okay, now this teacher, I do not remember his name, and probably for a very good reason, but my senior year I did a project , a term paper, on Phenylketonuria which is PKU which was an up and coming special educational sector that was now more prominent in some special education and had been and it was due to diet. When I became very, very interested in this, not that I knew anybody, I have since then, but not at the time. My mother worked for a doctor who was our family doctor, Dr. Hyman and he was able to get some pamphlets for me and I read them and then asked if he’d get more information, asked my mother to go to TMC and get more information and next thing you knew I was doing this term paper on it and it was like well over fifty pages. When I got done I had everything from what doctors knew at the time to what parents were being told to what had to be done during pregnancy, to the diets themselves, to the children case histories, I mean I had such immense amount of work that I probably could have done a dissertation on it at the time and the professor did not believe I did the work.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh dear.
Barbara: And gave me an F, gave me an F.
Dr. Emanuel: Did you protest?
Barbara: I, being my senior year I didn’t quite know what to do about it so I knew my parents were coming and I had my roommates come with my parents to the professor, made an appointment, and met with him and I said I just want each of these people to tell you how many hours of work they each helped me to do to make this paper happen. I said so then you have some idea and some scope of what really went into this paper.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: And so my parent started with the part with the doctor and going to TMC and etc. and my roommates would tell about how they helped type page such and such for me or whatever. Or gathered this other information they were reading somewhere else and ran across some more information or whatever. And finally at the end of our half hour session of that, he said I had absolutely no idea. He says this is an A plus work. So I went from an F to an A plus.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: I see why you don’t remember his name.
(Laughing)
Barbara: I really don’t. I just put it out of my mine after that. I really don’t.
(Laughing)
Barbara: And he was a well-known professor, I know that. And I’m sure he was very good because he taught a very good class. I enjoyed his class immensely. But that’s what happened. So my last experience, well almost last experience, of college.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: And then the last experience that we have to talk about is the commencement.
Dr. Emanuel: Sure.
Barbara: I thought it was wonderful naming the university, I was just so proud to be chosen to do the invocation. However, one small factor, nobody fore saw and would help me with the problem until it occurred and that was I being the woman, all the dignitaries being men; who goes off the stage first? The dignitaries are saying I had to go off the stage first and I’m going, you have to go. And they’re not going. We were going through this rigmarole for about two minutes and I was just so embarrassed I almost had tears. And I do not remember to this day which one of the dignitaries took my arm and said let’s go.
(Laughing)
Barbara: I was so embarrassed. I remember I ran to take my cap and gown off and turn them in. My parents never even got a picture.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: But you did give the invocations none the less.
Barbara: I did.
Dr. Emanuel: And the very first one for Northern Arizona University
Barbara: And that was it.
Dr. Emanuel: I love it.
Barbara: That was so funny.
Dr. Emanuel: Well other than that experience...
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: What would be your clearest memory from the years at ASC?
Barbara: All the friends.
Dr. Emanuel: Clearest and most memorable.
Barbara: All the friendships that I made. All the friendships through the years that have stayed.Have stayed. They’ve been lasting friendships
Dr. Emanuel: Wow
Barbara: And I don’t think too many people can say that.
Dr. Emanuel: No. So one of the questions that we have is the connections your college experience provided you with and you made connections that have stayed with you through these years.
Barbara: Mmhmm.
Dr. Emanuel: What would be some examples?
Mr. Markert: I can think of one right off but it’s your interview.
Barbara: Go head.
Mr. Markert: She mentioned the name Doug Renner.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Doug Renner introduced me to my future bride.
Dr. Emanuel: Wow.
Mr. Markert: I was friends with Doug Renner. Secondly, she is the god mother of one of Doug Renner’s children.
Dr. Emanuel: That’s a good one. Yeah.
Barbara: And I introduced him to his wife.
Dr. Emanuel: You introduced Doug Renner to his wife. Oh how interesting.
Barbara: We went to a basketball game together and I was cheering so loudly for our team to win, etc. and at the end of the date he says Barbara I like you as a person but I will never, ever take you to another basketball game as long as I live. He says nobody cheers that loudly for anybody’s team. And he says I need somebody a little bit quieter and I said Doug I have the perfect person for you. I will have her to you in twenty four hours. And he says, oh really? And I said yeah, I won’t introduce her to you, I’ll just point her out to you, that’s all. So I asked him to go to coffee the next day, because I knew she did waitressing at the little coffee shop across from the campus. And on the way home he said, I probably shouldn’t say this cause she would get embarrassed huh? You won’t put that in there will you?
Dr. Emanuel: Everything that you say is right in here.
Barbara: Well then I can’t say that
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.
(Laughing)
Barbara: I’ll have to say it later in private. But anyway, he approved and they’re married and they’ve...
Mr. Markert: I’m anxious to hear what he said.
(Laughing)
Mr. Markert: I do know that the Renner’s and the Markert’s have been very good friends for thirty six years.
Barbara: And now their son is thinking of buying the house next door. So who knows?
Dr. Emanuel: My goodness that is a connection.
Barbara: Small world. Small world. And Sheila and I still write each other and call each other and Laurie Bodry and I.
(Husband says something in the background)
Barbara: Yeah Jan Saco, who’s now dead. And Jen Bechio which is Jeanette Allen. Um, let???s see, who else?
Dr. Emanuel: Laurie Bodry came from here didn’t’ she.
Barbara: Yes she did.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah, I remember her.
Barbara: I used to take her back and forth. So when we were ready for our first car, her father gave us a good deal.
Dr. Emanuel: Ah. They own a car dealership, I forgot that.
Barbara: Yeah. So it worked out. Um, another thing I remember of, I don’t know if you want to say it was dorm life or what, but I remember having a date back out for one of our prom type of thing affairs and I don’t know if it was Newman club or Don Renner’s fraternity or what but I had to attend supposedly to this event. And one person who lived in Babbitt hall whom I’ve made good friends with, we didn’t date particularly. Anyway one of his brother’s told him, fraternity brothers, and he came all the way from California to take me to the prom that night.
Dr. Emanuel: My goodness. And that was a prom on campus?
Barbara: I mean just wonderful connections.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: That blow me away that people were so nice. And it doesn’t mean you always appreciated it at the time but that effort was really good.
Dr. Emanuel: What about your college experience most made you feel good about yourself?
Barbara: College experience. I think helping others and that’s probably still true today.
Mr. Markert: Absolutely. If you didn’t mention that I would have interjected it.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: Barbara, the time period is full of social issues of the country as a whole but how many of those came through to ASC and which ones do you remember affected life on campus?
Barbara: Hm.
Dr. Emanuel: From the national scene.
Barbara: Yeah, see I, I don’t recall any kind of prejudice, religious, skin color, um mentality, or physically, I don’t recall any of that. And I think that was a big shocker to go out in the real world and face that.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: And especially in Sierra Vista where you had the military so close and you had all sorts of diversified children that you were teaching and how they were not always so well. And so that was a big thing for me and I think Mr. Holland also realized that in me as a teacher because I recall him coming to me one afternoon and saying Barbara, I’m going to give you a brain injured child starting tomorrow afternoon. Now you have to realize I was already in a class of forty five.
(laughing)
Barbara: And he says because I think you will know what to do with this child and I’m only going to put it in your room for the afternoon and I remember that child coming in with the teacher who was elderly at that point but an excellent teacher and the child not feeling really welcome. And I said you know boys and girls we really need to make so and so feel really super. I said what’s our favorite song to sing? And of course at that time it was the wheels on the bus.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh good grief.
(laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: That song never goes away.
(laughing)
Barbara: That’s right. And so, we started singing, the little gentlemen started in with us and next thing you know he was right at home in our classroom and he couldn’t wait and he told his teacher I’m going to see Miss Strycharz and she says no you don’t go till the afternoon and he says well you let me know when that time is. I’m going. I’m going. He never missed. He always came.
(Laughing)
Barbara: We had a great time with him and we actually did teach him. The whole class in general. One of the things that I did to help him to learn writing and to put ideas together is we would do a class book in the afternoon and every child only had to give a sentence so the first child got to start whatever it was and of course usually it was once upon a time, and then you’d add from there what you wanted to go with it. And then you added on top of that and we built this whole story and then we’d type it out and it’d be out in the hallway for everybody to read. And this is one way that that child participated in our classroom and at the end of that year Mr. Holland said, you know what, you’re going for special education. He says we really need a special education teacher and I knew you were the one. You’re going, that’s your Master’s degree. And I said oh well, I don’t know. I’m not really comfortable with that. He says oh yeah, you will. So I came to the U of A, took classes, I had eighteen units at the University of Arizona at the time when somehow, who knows, I to this day cannot tell you, said somehow this professor who is no longer qualified to teach the classes for special ed. Those of us who that have had classes from him would lose all of our credits and I’m thinking I can’t start from square one, what do I do? One of my friends in the class had another friend who was her roommate in Minnesota where they taught said we’re going to ask Donna to see if Dr. Oscar Christensen will take so many of us from here because consoling, Barbara, is very much like special ed. We’ll fit in. We’ll do okay. And I said okay, so Donna asked Dr. Christensen and he took out of our whole program of people he took fifteen and I got to be one of the lucky fifteen and because he took us before that professor was eliminated, done away with, or whatever the university had to do with him, we managed to keep fifteen our of our eighteen units. And that’s how I came into consoling.
Dr. Emanuel: So you got your MS in consoling?
Barbara: Yes I did.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: Elementary school consoling.
Dr. Emanuel: What year?
Barbara: And I was one of the first consolers here in oh 1970.
Dr. Emanuel: 1970 yeah.
Mr. Markert: 71 wasn’t it? Or 70?
Barbara: Same year we were married dear.
Mr. Markert: You got your masters in 70?
Barbara: I got it a month ahead of you and you were out a month ahead of me. It was the only break I got in life.
(Laughing)
Mr. Markert: I didn’t get my master’s until 71.That’s what I was thinking.
Barbara: You got it in 71? No you got it in 70 didn’t you? Go look it up. It’s there on the bed or table.
Mr. Markert: You have your degree there?
Barbara: I do.
Dr. Emanuel: What were the, oh before we leave, the social issues...
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: Do you remember 1963 and JFK?
Barbara: Yes I do. I was taking a test and that I would have to look up her name, and I know she’s the psychologist teacher.
Dr. Emanuel: Miguel?
Barbara: Yes. Um, we were taking the test, I fi remember sitting next to my girlfriend’s future husband who at that time was Sacco and...
Dr. Emanuel: Sacco, uh Sopho?
Barbara: Sacco. S-A-C-C-O.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.
Barbara: He was in drama.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh good grief. I remember him now.
Barbara: Anyway he was sitting next to me and he says I can’t take this test and I looked at him and I said you know, I can’t either but I’m here and he says so what do you think we ought to do? And I said you know, this is our president of the United States and we heard this while we were eating lunch and here we are at a one o’clock test, what was wrong with this picture? I said what if we write what our emotions are at this point instead of taking her test. Do you think she’ll really get upset with us? He says, it’s worth a try. And that’s what we did. And she gave us A’s.
Mr. Markert: What was the first part of this?
Dr. Emanuel: This was JFK’s assassination. Steve.
Barbara: Steve Sacco. Yeah, he committed suicide. His son is our god son. Yeah, small world like said.
Dr. Emanuel: It is.
Barbara: All my friends I still kept.
Dr. Emanuel: Well my last question is, what haven’t we asked that would you like to share with everyone?
Barbara: Oh my.
Dr. Emanuel: Do you have something on your list you want to bring forward?
Barbara: Well I just thought naming NAU was probably the top most outstanding thing we did of our accomplishments. And when they wanted to take away the name, what two years ago they wanted to change it?
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: I just was beside myself thinking how can they do that to us? It’s such a perfect name for our university. Why would they want to even think of changing it? I really just couldn’t visit it. It was very, very difficult. It was almost like throwing the baby in the bath water out.
Dr. Emanuel: Although, another member of your class, a gentleman that goes by the name of Dave Renquist, I don’t know whether...
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: Remember him. Uh, told me in the interview that he owns not one item that says NAU on it. He says he has lots of things that say ASC but he said I went to school at ASC; I didn’t go to school an NAU.
Barbara: But that’s true. But at the same time, because we named it, and I think because we were senators doing all that prep work...
Dr. Emanuel: Uh huh.
Barbara: We were invested far more than say the average student who only had two weeks with the name of NAU.
Dr. Emanuel: Right.
Barbara: There wasn’t that investment and that’s something I always did with my consoling. My staff had to be invested or we weren’t doing it because it was not going to fly.
Dr. Emanuel: That’s a good thought. It may have made it easier for those who were discussing it for all that time and I remember a lot of discussion and those meetings.
Barbara: Yes, yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Anything else you want to share?
Barbara: Okay, I think that was it that I had anyway.
Dr. Emanuel: Well thank you very much. This was an interview with Barbara Strycharz Markert and this is Gary Emanuel and we’re signing off on this interview.

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Dr. Emanuel: My name is Gary Emanuel and today is April the twenty and we are here interviewing Barbara Strycharz Market now, is that correct?
Barbara: That’s correct.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay, here in Tucson, Arizona. So Barbara, let me explain to you; you were just asking about the project. I got started on this a little over a year ago, doing oral histories of graduates of NAU. Sue Sessions, does that name ring a bell to you? Sue mentioned your name, that she had remembered you. There were a couple of others from your year graduated that I had done, so that will be fun.
Barbara: Alright.
Dr. Emanuel: I have a series of questions Barbara that I’m going to go through but this is your story so you get to tell it however you want.
Barbara: Okay.
Dr. Emanuel: But let’s just start with what your name was then, the degree you received, the year and the department and so on.
Barbara: Okay, received a Bachelor of Science in education, in 1966.
Dr. Emanuel: And the department, that was elementary, secondary?
Barbara: Well at that time they didn’t decipher but it was primary.
Dr. Emanuel: It was the Elementary?
Barbara: Yeah, elementary.
Dr. Emanuel: And then tell me a little bit about the role you had in education since graduation?
Barbara: Never stopped.
(Laughing)
Barbara: Um, actually it’s never stopped, seriously. Even now I volunteer and I’ve been retired now going on seven years this May. Um at one of my old schools, Dunham, and help give the aims test to the special education students and 504 students.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh.
Barbara: Because I think our state does them a great injustice.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah, yeah.
Barbara: Saying you have to be the ones that have to be tested on grade level. Well my gosh, if they were on grade level they wouldn’t be in special education. Hello. Does anyone not have a brain?
Dr. Emanuel: You wonder sometimes, don’t you? Talk to me... did you start, no you didn’t start at that school.
Barbara: No I started in Sierra Vista.
Dr. Emanuel: And teaching what grade?
Barbara: I taught second grade at Carmichael school under Dutch Holland.
Dr. Emanuel: My gosh that’s an old name.
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: And then?
Barbara: Um and then from Carmichael basically, okay that’s a story in itself that needs to be told somehow I guess. Um, I was Cindy Klellans teacher by the way, in case you didn’t know that or were aware of it. So psychologically I had some damage from years because I had not only the killers face to face with me on the playground and I realized immediately the person said oh you have the same smile as Cindy. I still get goose bumps today.
Dr. Emanuel: Now Barbara, relate that whole story because I don’t know that everyone will know the background.
Barbara: Okay, um this was a little seven year old girl whose father was over in Germany, mother was here in Sierra Vista and she was killed very brutally out on the government land outside of the school yard. The two men who killed her were from ---high school, lived on the same street as Dutch Holland believe it or not and the brother to those two high schoolers was in my class. So the brother introduced me to the older brother, that’s how that part started. And I knew and I immediately told the police he’s gotta be one of them. He has to be involved; I just have to tell you that. And I did try to help Cindy at the time because she came back to the school, to the classroom and she said oh Mrs. Strycharz I need my spelling list. And I said oh Cindy you don’t have to get your spelling list right now. We’re not having our test till a week from Friday yet and you’ll have the whole weekend to just have fun and relax and worry about it later next week. And she had a fist full of candy. And I said oh my gosh this is a target so I went to the front of the room where her desk was and I said Cindy why don’t you wait a few minutes and I’ll take you back home when I leave. And I rang the string that says to the office that says you’re in trouble or need help and so the office says are you okay? And I said yes but I think that Mr. Holland needs to be at the front door however, very quickly and as soon as I said that she ran, fled out door before Mr. Holland could get there. And that’s the history behind it. And that’s where the guilt came in. Like I said a lot of psychological thing put on from that.
Dr. Emanuel: My goodness you were that close. And from there they took her and oh. Well that is quite a story and then you went...
Barbara: And then from there, because it all ties in to what I do presently. Um, so then I had to prepare the classroom as the consoler would do, that we were in a crisis. We had this child that was not coming back and to deal with the safety issue of how now all these walking children get home because there were no busses in Sierra Vista.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: It was all walking and we had no idea at that time who the person would be or might be or whatever. So that began my consoling career believe it or not because I prepared the children, families and how to get their kids from the school safely back home. From there, we did find her body. The government found her body and from there I was interviewed a lot of times about various things that might have happened or might not have happened. Did I know anything more than what I was saying? And even when so far as to give the California standardized testing from the office to my kids in second grade in the room. I know how crazy this is. But anyway after three years of police protection the police said you have to find another place to live and be. We can’t protect you any longer. So I came to Tucson.
Dr. Emanuel: Which was?
And I started at VC school with my in Tucson and it was a brand new school so it was on the ground floor of it. It happened to be small world, my old principal from elementary school. So I was always labeled Mary Lynn Product.
Dr. Emanuel: And who is that principal?
Barbara: Allis Ronakey. She’s dead now. Yeah, and she retired the year that I had our first child and got out of teaching for one month and I was called back and the district says we do not have anyone in our district who is qualified to oversee the Stanford testing that was being done and they hadn’t chosen a school yet but they said we need somebody who has testing ability, which you have from NAU and who can oversee this so it has to be someone who is not presently teaching who has the degree, who would be willing to oversee the whole project which is going to be revamping the WISC intelligence test. So I got reintroduced to the testing field again and worked for Jim’s mother who also worked down in the research department and worked for her for a while, for at least five years, six years. Going out and doing animal cracker testing for title ones, and homeschooling children I got involved. It became my pet project to do at --middle school each year for the state of Arizona. Um and then when our children were grown and I was no longer substituting well I came back to do consoling and they had positions open and stayed in until retirement.
Dr. Emanuel: And you have how many children?
Barbara: Two girls.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.Well take me back to Arizona State College which it was when you went there.
Barbara: Yes.
Dr. Emanuel: What was the physical college of Arizona State College like when you first arrived there?
Barbara: Okay it was a very friendly campus. It was not a huge campus like it is today. It’simmense. I was assigned to north hall and I was inCampbell hall which then later became one of the sorority dorms
Dr. Emanuel: AOPi’s if I remember right
Barbara: I think it was AOPi. So then we got moved to south quad and south quad believe it or not became one wing married couples and three wings of single girls.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: I didn’t know that
Barbara: Yeah I wrote that on my little list.
Dr. Emanuel: How interesting.
Barbara: So it made for very interesting modesty at all times.
Dr. Emanuel: Yes
Barbara: We couldn’t just go to our laundry room in our night gowns or robes like we would normally have done.
Dr. Emanuel: And there was only one lobby.
Barbara: And there was only one lobby but what they did is it was open to the tri delt and sorority row.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh.
Barbara: And fraternity row faced out where the new health building went in
Dr. Emanuel: Right.
Barbara: So they had their own gate and so forth.But they still had their windows that over looked our patios.
(Laughing)
Barbara: So our quad was open to them.
Dr. Emanuel: Well there was a part I didn’t remember. Um, anything else about the physical layout of the campus or any of the other social outlets of the day?
Barbara: Well yes in Morton hall, okay well first you have to know it’s in a square, the buildings in a square. And then we had our patio in the middle. The only TV was down in Morton hall. So that’s where you would gather after your showers and washing hairs and what have you and go down to Morton hall and watch TV. That was a big occasion.
(Laughing)
Barbara: Also on the weekends was the only time they opened up the kitchen in North hall. So for those of us that had meal tickets for the five days but not for seven days, then we were allowed to cook in there until some girls of course took advantage of those kinds of privileges. But for the most part that was what we did. And also, okay I had one roommate who began with me, Beverly Barrett who received a scholarship from Pueblo High school, was told that if she took the scholarship to NAU she could not renegethat scholarship in any way and if she did that the scholarship would never be honored to Pueblo high school again. After the first midterms she had a B in typing or some business subject and went bananas. She was a straight A student and never had received a B. She didn’t know how to handle this B, so unfortunately I, or fortunately I don’t know which, but anyway all of us from Pueblo round the clock kept talking to her that she needed to stay and she needed to keep that scholarship because Pueblo is a poor school to begin with.And scholarships are major but she ended up going home no matter what we did for that whole three days around the clock, it did not help. She just went home.So we lost that scholarship so Jeanette Allen became my roommate from Amfly high school which is the other end of town and she and I are still friends today.
Dr. Emanuel: Etchiel?
Barbara: Yeah, Etchiel yeah. She sang beautifully. She sang in the choir there at
Dr. Emanuel: Shriner
Barbara: Yup she was Shriner. One night in the middle of the night, she had the top bunk and I had the bottom bunk and the bunk fell, smashed right on me.
(Laughing)
Barbara: We didn’t know what happened. She didn’t know what happened. Then we got the giggles and couldn’t go to sleep over this dumb bed that gave way.
Dr. Emanuel: So the rooms were bunk beds?
Barbara: Were bunk beds
Dr. Emanuel: Oh my goodness
Barbara: And then shortly after that they made them into twin beds but before that they were bunk beds. I also remember our little beanies with the little twirlies.
Dr. Emanuel: Yes, yes. And a sign saying I’m a freshman.
Barbara: I’m a freshman.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: Yes, I??m your servant.And literally I was a servant for a football player the night that we had our walk around campus. We were doing a snake dance in the parking lot across from the union hall and he apparently saw at that time I was a ninety pound weakling and picked me up by the arm and literally swung me like a rope and threw me. And I landed up against the side walk of Union hall and several people tried to take me to the health office, which was of course just a few feet away at that time, hadn’t been in the new building, but nobody was there. And nobody could tend me over this matter for having been thrown or falling for I guess it was almost a month. And when I did they said oh just go home and soak. And I said I did all the soaking I can do, I really do hurt. There is something majorly wrong. They’d say oh no you’re okay. So I came home and saw my doctor and he had cleared me too, but my junior year I got Phlebitis from that fall. And couldn’t..
Dr. Emanuel: In the legs?
Barbara: Yes, and could not, could not wake, when I woke up I could not walk. And my roommates at south quad were just so frightened. They didn’t know what to do for me and so they brought me breakfast, lunch and dinner and then they said you know we got to take you to the infirmary. You can’t live here like this. So they took me and I remember that infirmary doctor saying there’s nothing I can do and your doctor at home is actually the best doctor to go back to. So I came back and the rest was history there too. So I went back and that’s when my grade average fell because when I came back I couldn’t do stairs. Well, guess where all the education classes were? Second floor of the education building.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: And out of my five or six teachers, only two of them allowed me homework downstairs or in the lobby of the education building in order to do it. The rest unfortunately went south. I had to make those up then in summer school because I needed to student teach in the fall.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: So life has not been easy in education but it’s been a fun ride. Like roller-coasters.
Dr. Emanuel: You were from Pueblo.
Barbara: (muffled)
Dr. Emanuel: Sure. Why did you choose to go to ASC?
Barbara: Oh that’s another little interesting story. I can even tell you. I was in Mr. Torchiano’s math class and I had one of my fellow friends who was sitting next to me and we were doing our math problems and Mr. Torchiano said something about how many of you here are planning to do education. We all raised our hands. He says how many of you are -- U of A. Of course I was because we didn’t have money. My parents didn’t have enough to send me away from college and after class he came up to me and said Barbara, you’re a natural born teacher, don’t go to the U of A. He says you have to go up to flagstaff and there is no way around that. We’re going to work on a scholarship for you. And I thought what? And so through girl’s league--however, another little facet that generally happens to Barbara, Murphy’s Law, when it came time to graduation there was another young lady who was in girl’s league ---more money than my parents. Anyway that was beside the point and they decided they needed to grant it to her in honor of all the work her parents had done and that she had done and etc. and would I be willing to give up my scholarship for her. And I said well I really need the scholarship, but I said I understand where you’re coming from and so I guess I will do so, so that she can go wherever she wants to go and I know that she has been around the world as a great translator. So I don’t have any regrets that she also got a good scholarship that got her somewhere that was important in life to
Dr. Emanuel: How then did you pay for your college experience? Did you work during that time?
I did.
Dr. Emanuel: What jobs did you hold on campus?
Barbara: Great fun. Okay, um, trying to think of the first one. The first one I think was Dr. Smallwood and I don’t recall how I got connected to him except that somebody in the main office must have seen that I had library science throughout high school because that was my fun outlet of high school. I mean I had belonged to a whole bunch of organizations but I just loved libraries. And so, anyway they told me that Dr. Smallwood was looking for somebody to set up his library and that they thought that I would be a good match for him. And I did so. Then later I took a classroom speech and I believed he used your father’s book, Speech for all. See it’s all a tie in. It really is just so much that ties in. You know you have to say your life is planned out somehow. And you just go on this merry go round. Um so that’s how I got involved with Dr. Smallwood and did his library and then I did an assistant type work for Dr. Aarons and by the way I didn’t need to look up in my year book any of these names.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh. Well you’re doing better than most of us that, that’s for sure because I couldn’t remember most of the people.
Barbara: And then my biggest and most fun job on campus, this was registration. I was one of the registers.
Dr. Emanuel: I didn’t know that.
Barbara: Mmhmm.
Dr. Emanuel: And where was that located back then?
Barbara: Well every time we came for registration that was in the main oh where was that? It was in a hall like. I’m trying to think. It had to be in the lobby of the student union. They must have had some room that they opened up to us. Like a ballroom. If fact that’s what I remember. And I don’t recall it being in the gym. I know the first time it was. Then after that we didn’t do it in the gym anymore. I’m sure it was in the new student union
Dr. Emanuel: I had another interview that was going through the same thing, remembering the punch cards that they used to hand out
Barbara: Yes we had the punch cards.
Dr. Emanuel: But we could not remember where that took place. We remembered once in the men’s gym but that was it.
Barbara: Yeah, once, that’s what I’m saying. It was in one of the gyms. That Iremember.So it’d be the men’s gym because the women’s would have been too small.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: And then after that we went to a different kind of system so we didn’t have to be physically in ---anymore because the teachers didn’t need to be present And so I’m sure it was in the new student union that we went to.
Dr. Emanuel: So did you have other jobs?
Barbara: That was it.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.
Barbara: Oh I did. I had one in my dorm where I answer phones.
Dr. Emanuel: Well speaking of dorms, let’s talk about housing at, back then.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: What your experience was like in the dormitory.
Barbara: Oh the good old dorms.
(background talking)
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: Um, dorm life was really quite interesting and quite fun actually for the most part. Um, north hall my freshman year for the most part was actually a very quiet dorm for the most part for freshman. However when we moved to south quad, that was a real eye opener and learned to use the libraries a whole lot more than being in your dorm. When we moved to south quad for the sophomore year we had four women to a room. We had three beds out in the front room and then one in the small bedroom. However, halfway through my junior year when they did the opening for the marriage group on that one wing they had to put of course all those people into then our rooms. So now our rooms became four beds, five beds. So we had two in the little room and three in the big room. Now we had a kitchenette that we did not use. However, most people know that we had hot plates and stick them underneath the stove drawer and hide them out of sight when it came time for inspections. We had inspections regularly plus unannounced inspections. We had a dorm consoler, I do remember that. ---my roommate was one of them. Oh I do remember dorm life was fun, you’ll, Bonnie Lynn. My husband went to school with her and she was one of my roommates. Bonnie one night had said nobody’s going to bother me. Everybody take their shower. Everybody do what they need to do in the bathroom. The bathroom is mine for the night.
(Laughing)
Barbara: We all looked at her and said wait a minute we might need to use it and we just don’t know about it yet. And she said well that will be okay. I’m just declaring the bathroom is mine. She proceeded to get all of her bed clothing, the sheets and the blankets and so forth. She laid them all in the tub after we finished our showers and all and put the pillow at the end of the tub and brought her books and at that time we had a little TV tray and she brought that in and she set her shop up in the shower, curtain around and she said if you need to use the toilet it’s yours. The rest of the space here is mine. And she studied all night long for her exams.
Dr. Emanuel: In the bath tub?
Barbara: In the bath tub and low and behold about 1:30 or 2 in the morning wouldn’t you know we had a panty raid and poor Bonnie’s in the bath tub trying to get out. It was so funny. I still picture that. That was probably a highlight.
Dr. Emanuel: And just that memory of panty raids tells you that it’s been awhile since then.
Oh what fun.
Dr. Emanuel: Well as long as we’re talking about traditions like that though, what traditions do you remember from ASC?
Okay, one that we still do presently and that is foreign foods night.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh.
Barbara: I thoroughly enjoyed all the different countries we visited with foods in the cafeteria and remember we had to dress up with the gloves and the whole nine yards and heels and so forth and we’d come to dinner because this was a special occasion. And everyone treated it with such respect that when I married Jim, we had a faculty wives organization in TUSD and one of the interest groups were in foods and so we joined immediately and we had been a part of the foreign foods group for what over thirty five years now.
Dr. Emanuel: Wow.
Barbara: And we still meet. We just met two nights ago, here.
Dr. Emanuel: And was that North dining hall? Or south?
Barbara: It was at both of them.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh at both of them. Okay.
Barbara: It was at both. And they had table cloths. I remember it was just beautiful. I thought this is elegant dining with
Dr. Emanuel: In a cafeteria
Barbara: No work. No food fights. Nothing like that.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: It was really pleasant.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: Other traditions?
Barbara: Other traditions that I remember? The snow sculptures were always the big tradition. Homecoming. Oh. And snow sculptures were a great even because it was the only time we could be out all night.
(Laughing)
Barbara: Legally.
Dr. Emanuel: Supposedly working on your sculpture.
Barbara: Right yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: Yes. Another tradition was religion and life week of which I helped host for two years of my four. And that two ties into my consoling background because when I became a consoler at TUSD I was one of the first and probably the only one from what I heard that took the junior high concept of career day and bringing to the elementary level with actual career people. Not just parents who wanted to come and talk to the kids. And the kids actually went around school, Jim had the pleasure after he retired to come and see one, he was absolutely I think blown away for an elementary level. So.
Dr. Emanuel: Uh religion and life week, Newman Center? Or?
Barbara: No that was the whole campus
Dr. Emanuel: For the whole campus.
Barbara: For the whole campus. And each religion had a year to do so to put it together. However one year and I don’t remember off hand but I’m thinking it was the protestant sector who said something that there speaker wasn’t able to come or whatever and I remember the LDS saying okay, we’ll take it over. So they did there’s two years in a row instead of the one and that’s why I work with them even though I wasn’t LDS
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: But I worked with them.
Dr. Emanuel: Barbara, other extra-curricular activities, what else were you involved in?
Barbara: Okay, I was Newman Queen and I was also oh dear, Doug Renner’s fraternity.
Mr. Markert: Sweetheart.
Barbara: Sweetheart, and I don’t remember what that is; Phi delta kappa I think. Something like that.
Mr. Markert: Want me to call him?
(laughing)
Barbara: Yeah, he’ll tell you. He’ll tell you. If you call him he’ll tell you.
Dr. Emanuel: Was it one of the fraternities on campus?
Barbara: Yeah, I was a fraternity on campus and it was his, Doug Renner’s. Call him, he’ll tell you.
Mr. Markert: Would you like to know, is that it?
Dr. Emanuel: It’s... you were a fraternity
Barbara: Sweetheart.
Dr. Emanuel: Sweetheart.
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.And other activities?
Barbara: Other activities, Senator.
Dr. Emanuel: Senator.
Barbara: A long time.
Mr. Markert:Did you do archery back then or was that high school?
Barbara: High school.
Dr. Emanuel: I don’t remember too much archery up there anyway.
Barbara: No but that was a good rival story too that happened in college. Oh let’s see. I can’t think of any but maybe some others will come. I know I was Newman club secretary and probably their treasurer. I know I held an office almost every year I was there. We put together the new Newman center.
Dr. Emanuel: Really?
Barbara: Yeah, our class.
Dr. Emanuel: The plans for it.
Barbara: The plans for it and how it should be done, etc.
Dr. Emanuel: Well, let me move you to the...
Barbara: Oh I worked on, on yes Drama; I worked on the sets because of Jen. She got me involved in working the set (Dr. Emanuel begins to speak over Barbara).
Dr. Emanuel: Arizona Play makers.
Barbara: Yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Uh huh.
Barbara: That was another one.
Dr. Emanuel: I interviewed um, Robert Welch who was in that.
Barbara: Oh yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah, absolutely.
Barbara: Oh thank you. My nose is running.
Dr. Emanuel: Allergies this season have been, yeah.What teachers or educational experiences do you remember?
(Phone ringing)
Barbara: What teachers? Okay, now this teacher, I do not remember his name, and probably for a very good reason, but my senior year I did a project , a term paper, on Phenylketonuria which is PKU which was an up and coming special educational sector that was now more prominent in some special education and had been and it was due to diet. When I became very, very interested in this, not that I knew anybody, I have since then, but not at the time. My mother worked for a doctor who was our family doctor, Dr. Hyman and he was able to get some pamphlets for me and I read them and then asked if he’d get more information, asked my mother to go to TMC and get more information and next thing you knew I was doing this term paper on it and it was like well over fifty pages. When I got done I had everything from what doctors knew at the time to what parents were being told to what had to be done during pregnancy, to the diets themselves, to the children case histories, I mean I had such immense amount of work that I probably could have done a dissertation on it at the time and the professor did not believe I did the work.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh dear.
Barbara: And gave me an F, gave me an F.
Dr. Emanuel: Did you protest?
Barbara: I, being my senior year I didn’t quite know what to do about it so I knew my parents were coming and I had my roommates come with my parents to the professor, made an appointment, and met with him and I said I just want each of these people to tell you how many hours of work they each helped me to do to make this paper happen. I said so then you have some idea and some scope of what really went into this paper.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: And so my parent started with the part with the doctor and going to TMC and etc. and my roommates would tell about how they helped type page such and such for me or whatever. Or gathered this other information they were reading somewhere else and ran across some more information or whatever. And finally at the end of our half hour session of that, he said I had absolutely no idea. He says this is an A plus work. So I went from an F to an A plus.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: I see why you don’t remember his name.
(Laughing)
Barbara: I really don’t. I just put it out of my mine after that. I really don’t.
(Laughing)
Barbara: And he was a well-known professor, I know that. And I’m sure he was very good because he taught a very good class. I enjoyed his class immensely. But that’s what happened. So my last experience, well almost last experience, of college.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: And then the last experience that we have to talk about is the commencement.
Dr. Emanuel: Sure.
Barbara: I thought it was wonderful naming the university, I was just so proud to be chosen to do the invocation. However, one small factor, nobody fore saw and would help me with the problem until it occurred and that was I being the woman, all the dignitaries being men; who goes off the stage first? The dignitaries are saying I had to go off the stage first and I’m going, you have to go. And they’re not going. We were going through this rigmarole for about two minutes and I was just so embarrassed I almost had tears. And I do not remember to this day which one of the dignitaries took my arm and said let’s go.
(Laughing)
Barbara: I was so embarrassed. I remember I ran to take my cap and gown off and turn them in. My parents never even got a picture.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: But you did give the invocations none the less.
Barbara: I did.
Dr. Emanuel: And the very first one for Northern Arizona University
Barbara: And that was it.
Dr. Emanuel: I love it.
Barbara: That was so funny.
Dr. Emanuel: Well other than that experience...
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: What would be your clearest memory from the years at ASC?
Barbara: All the friends.
Dr. Emanuel: Clearest and most memorable.
Barbara: All the friendships that I made. All the friendships through the years that have stayed.Have stayed. They’ve been lasting friendships
Dr. Emanuel: Wow
Barbara: And I don’t think too many people can say that.
Dr. Emanuel: No. So one of the questions that we have is the connections your college experience provided you with and you made connections that have stayed with you through these years.
Barbara: Mmhmm.
Dr. Emanuel: What would be some examples?
Mr. Markert: I can think of one right off but it’s your interview.
Barbara: Go head.
Mr. Markert: She mentioned the name Doug Renner.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Doug Renner introduced me to my future bride.
Dr. Emanuel: Wow.
Mr. Markert: I was friends with Doug Renner. Secondly, she is the god mother of one of Doug Renner’s children.
Dr. Emanuel: That’s a good one. Yeah.
Barbara: And I introduced him to his wife.
Dr. Emanuel: You introduced Doug Renner to his wife. Oh how interesting.
Barbara: We went to a basketball game together and I was cheering so loudly for our team to win, etc. and at the end of the date he says Barbara I like you as a person but I will never, ever take you to another basketball game as long as I live. He says nobody cheers that loudly for anybody’s team. And he says I need somebody a little bit quieter and I said Doug I have the perfect person for you. I will have her to you in twenty four hours. And he says, oh really? And I said yeah, I won’t introduce her to you, I’ll just point her out to you, that’s all. So I asked him to go to coffee the next day, because I knew she did waitressing at the little coffee shop across from the campus. And on the way home he said, I probably shouldn’t say this cause she would get embarrassed huh? You won’t put that in there will you?
Dr. Emanuel: Everything that you say is right in here.
Barbara: Well then I can’t say that
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.
(Laughing)
Barbara: I’ll have to say it later in private. But anyway, he approved and they’re married and they’ve...
Mr. Markert: I’m anxious to hear what he said.
(Laughing)
Mr. Markert: I do know that the Renner’s and the Markert’s have been very good friends for thirty six years.
Barbara: And now their son is thinking of buying the house next door. So who knows?
Dr. Emanuel: My goodness that is a connection.
Barbara: Small world. Small world. And Sheila and I still write each other and call each other and Laurie Bodry and I.
(Husband says something in the background)
Barbara: Yeah Jan Saco, who’s now dead. And Jen Bechio which is Jeanette Allen. Um, let???s see, who else?
Dr. Emanuel: Laurie Bodry came from here didn’t’ she.
Barbara: Yes she did.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah, I remember her.
Barbara: I used to take her back and forth. So when we were ready for our first car, her father gave us a good deal.
Dr. Emanuel: Ah. They own a car dealership, I forgot that.
Barbara: Yeah. So it worked out. Um, another thing I remember of, I don’t know if you want to say it was dorm life or what, but I remember having a date back out for one of our prom type of thing affairs and I don’t know if it was Newman club or Don Renner’s fraternity or what but I had to attend supposedly to this event. And one person who lived in Babbitt hall whom I’ve made good friends with, we didn’t date particularly. Anyway one of his brother’s told him, fraternity brothers, and he came all the way from California to take me to the prom that night.
Dr. Emanuel: My goodness. And that was a prom on campus?
Barbara: I mean just wonderful connections.
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: That blow me away that people were so nice. And it doesn’t mean you always appreciated it at the time but that effort was really good.
Dr. Emanuel: What about your college experience most made you feel good about yourself?
Barbara: College experience. I think helping others and that’s probably still true today.
Mr. Markert: Absolutely. If you didn’t mention that I would have interjected it.
(Laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: Barbara, the time period is full of social issues of the country as a whole but how many of those came through to ASC and which ones do you remember affected life on campus?
Barbara: Hm.
Dr. Emanuel: From the national scene.
Barbara: Yeah, see I, I don’t recall any kind of prejudice, religious, skin color, um mentality, or physically, I don’t recall any of that. And I think that was a big shocker to go out in the real world and face that.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: And especially in Sierra Vista where you had the military so close and you had all sorts of diversified children that you were teaching and how they were not always so well. And so that was a big thing for me and I think Mr. Holland also realized that in me as a teacher because I recall him coming to me one afternoon and saying Barbara, I’m going to give you a brain injured child starting tomorrow afternoon. Now you have to realize I was already in a class of forty five.
(laughing)
Barbara: And he says because I think you will know what to do with this child and I’m only going to put it in your room for the afternoon and I remember that child coming in with the teacher who was elderly at that point but an excellent teacher and the child not feeling really welcome. And I said you know boys and girls we really need to make so and so feel really super. I said what’s our favorite song to sing? And of course at that time it was the wheels on the bus.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh good grief.
(laughing)
Dr. Emanuel: That song never goes away.
(laughing)
Barbara: That’s right. And so, we started singing, the little gentlemen started in with us and next thing you know he was right at home in our classroom and he couldn’t wait and he told his teacher I’m going to see Miss Strycharz and she says no you don’t go till the afternoon and he says well you let me know when that time is. I’m going. I’m going. He never missed. He always came.
(Laughing)
Barbara: We had a great time with him and we actually did teach him. The whole class in general. One of the things that I did to help him to learn writing and to put ideas together is we would do a class book in the afternoon and every child only had to give a sentence so the first child got to start whatever it was and of course usually it was once upon a time, and then you’d add from there what you wanted to go with it. And then you added on top of that and we built this whole story and then we’d type it out and it’d be out in the hallway for everybody to read. And this is one way that that child participated in our classroom and at the end of that year Mr. Holland said, you know what, you’re going for special education. He says we really need a special education teacher and I knew you were the one. You’re going, that’s your Master’s degree. And I said oh well, I don’t know. I’m not really comfortable with that. He says oh yeah, you will. So I came to the U of A, took classes, I had eighteen units at the University of Arizona at the time when somehow, who knows, I to this day cannot tell you, said somehow this professor who is no longer qualified to teach the classes for special ed. Those of us who that have had classes from him would lose all of our credits and I’m thinking I can’t start from square one, what do I do? One of my friends in the class had another friend who was her roommate in Minnesota where they taught said we’re going to ask Donna to see if Dr. Oscar Christensen will take so many of us from here because consoling, Barbara, is very much like special ed. We’ll fit in. We’ll do okay. And I said okay, so Donna asked Dr. Christensen and he took out of our whole program of people he took fifteen and I got to be one of the lucky fifteen and because he took us before that professor was eliminated, done away with, or whatever the university had to do with him, we managed to keep fifteen our of our eighteen units. And that’s how I came into consoling.
Dr. Emanuel: So you got your MS in consoling?
Barbara: Yes I did.
Dr. Emanuel: Mmhmm.
Barbara: Elementary school consoling.
Dr. Emanuel: What year?
Barbara: And I was one of the first consolers here in oh 1970.
Dr. Emanuel: 1970 yeah.
Mr. Markert: 71 wasn’t it? Or 70?
Barbara: Same year we were married dear.
Mr. Markert: You got your masters in 70?
Barbara: I got it a month ahead of you and you were out a month ahead of me. It was the only break I got in life.
(Laughing)
Mr. Markert: I didn’t get my master’s until 71.That’s what I was thinking.
Barbara: You got it in 71? No you got it in 70 didn’t you? Go look it up. It’s there on the bed or table.
Mr. Markert: You have your degree there?
Barbara: I do.
Dr. Emanuel: What were the, oh before we leave, the social issues...
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: Do you remember 1963 and JFK?
Barbara: Yes I do. I was taking a test and that I would have to look up her name, and I know she’s the psychologist teacher.
Dr. Emanuel: Miguel?
Barbara: Yes. Um, we were taking the test, I fi remember sitting next to my girlfriend’s future husband who at that time was Sacco and...
Dr. Emanuel: Sacco, uh Sopho?
Barbara: Sacco. S-A-C-C-O.
Dr. Emanuel: Okay.
Barbara: He was in drama.
Dr. Emanuel: Oh good grief. I remember him now.
Barbara: Anyway he was sitting next to me and he says I can’t take this test and I looked at him and I said you know, I can’t either but I’m here and he says so what do you think we ought to do? And I said you know, this is our president of the United States and we heard this while we were eating lunch and here we are at a one o’clock test, what was wrong with this picture? I said what if we write what our emotions are at this point instead of taking her test. Do you think she’ll really get upset with us? He says, it’s worth a try. And that’s what we did. And she gave us A’s.
Mr. Markert: What was the first part of this?
Dr. Emanuel: This was JFK’s assassination. Steve.
Barbara: Steve Sacco. Yeah, he committed suicide. His son is our god son. Yeah, small world like said.
Dr. Emanuel: It is.
Barbara: All my friends I still kept.
Dr. Emanuel: Well my last question is, what haven’t we asked that would you like to share with everyone?
Barbara: Oh my.
Dr. Emanuel: Do you have something on your list you want to bring forward?
Barbara: Well I just thought naming NAU was probably the top most outstanding thing we did of our accomplishments. And when they wanted to take away the name, what two years ago they wanted to change it?
Dr. Emanuel: Yeah.
Barbara: I just was beside myself thinking how can they do that to us? It’s such a perfect name for our university. Why would they want to even think of changing it? I really just couldn’t visit it. It was very, very difficult. It was almost like throwing the baby in the bath water out.
Dr. Emanuel: Although, another member of your class, a gentleman that goes by the name of Dave Renquist, I don’t know whether...
Barbara: Yeah.
Dr. Emanuel: Remember him. Uh, told me in the interview that he owns not one item that says NAU on it. He says he has lots of things that say ASC but he said I went to school at ASC; I didn’t go to school an NAU.
Barbara: But that’s true. But at the same time, because we named it, and I think because we were senators doing all that prep work...
Dr. Emanuel: Uh huh.
Barbara: We were invested far more than say the average student who only had two weeks with the name of NAU.
Dr. Emanuel: Right.
Barbara: There wasn’t that investment and that’s something I always did with my consoling. My staff had to be invested or we weren’t doing it because it was not going to fly.
Dr. Emanuel: That’s a good thought. It may have made it easier for those who were discussing it for all that time and I remember a lot of discussion and those meetings.
Barbara: Yes, yes.
Dr. Emanuel: Anything else you want to share?
Barbara: Okay, I think that was it that I had anyway.
Dr. Emanuel: Well thank you very much. This was an interview with Barbara Strycharz Markert and this is Gary Emanuel and we’re signing off on this interview.